Experts say the new bible of psychiatry shouldn't be the gospel of mental illness

If you suffered from a mental illness more than a century and a half ago, your diagnosis, were you lucky enough to get one, would have boiled down to one of two choices: idiocy or insanity.

The process has evolved considerably since then, with the number of possible diagnoses climbing by about 8% each year; there are now 157. But some say the approach is still not as effective as it could be.

These critics are targeting the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the so-called bible of mental health, whose symptom lists shape the diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric...